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18Educating for Good Thinking: Virtues, Skills, or Both?Informal Logic 44 (1): 173-203. 2023.This paper explores the relationship between intellectual virtues and critical thinking, both as such and as educational ends worth pursuing. The first half of the paper examines the intersection of intellectual virtue and critical thinking. The second half addresses a recent argument to the effect that educating for intellectual virtues (in contrast to educating for critical thinking) is insufficiently action-guiding and therefore lacks a suitable pedagogy.
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26Educating for Good Thinking: Virtues, Skills, or Both?Informal Logic 43 (2): 173-203. 2023.This paper explores the relationship between intellectual virtues and critical thinking, both as such and as educational ends worth pursuing. The first half of the paper examines the intersection of intellectual virtue and critical thinking. The second half addresses a recent argument to the effect that educating for intellectual virtues (in contrast to educating for critical thinking) is insufficiently action-guiding and therefore lacks a suitable pedagogy.
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7Educating for Intellectual Virtues: From Theory to PracticeIn Ben Kotzee (ed.), Education and the Growth of Knowledge, Wiley. 2013-12-25.After a brief overview of what intellectual virtues are, I offer three arguments for the claim that education should aim at fostering ‘intellectual character virtues’ like curiosity, open‐mindedness, intellectual courage, and intellectual honesty. I then go on to discuss several pedagogical and related strategies for achieving this aim.
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9Epistemic malevolenceIn Heather Battaly (ed.), Virtue and Vice, Moral and Epistemic, Wiley-blackwell. 2010.This chapter contains sections titled: Malevolence Proper An Epistemic Counterpart of Malevolence Epistemic Malevolence and Intellectual Vice Acknowledgments References.
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Evidentialism, vice, and virtueIn Trent Dougherty (ed.), Evidentialism and its Discontents, Oxford University Press. 2011.
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20Limitations-Owning and the Interpersonal Dimensions of Intellectual HumilityScientia et Fides 10 (2): 69-82. 2022.According to one prominent account of intellectual humility, it consists primarily of a disposition to “own” one’s intellectual limitations. This account has been criticized for neglecting the _interpersonal _dimensions of intellectual humility. We expect intellectually humble persons to be respectful and generous with their interlocutors and to avoid being haughty or domineering. I defend the limitations-owning account against this objection. I do so in two ways: first, by arguing that some of …Read more
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The situationist challenge to educating for intellectual virtuesIn Mark Alfano & Abrol Fairweather (eds.), Epistemic Situationism, Oxford University Press. 2017.
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277Intellectual Patience: Controlling Temporally-Charged Urges in the Life of the MindIn Nathan L. King (ed.), Endurance, . forthcoming.In this chapter, we analyze intellectual patience as a character trait. We look at the contexts that call for patience and at what patience demands in those contexts. Together these constitute our account of patience, though the focus is on patience in the life of the mind. We also consider how patience and perseverance differ, which offers a better understanding of the former and sheds light on how character traits can cooperate. We then consider how to become virtuously patient. We conclude re…Read more
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8153Intellectual Humility: Owning Our LimitationsPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 94 (3): 509-539. 2017.What is intellectual humility? In this essay, we aim to answer this question by assessing several contemporary accounts of intellectual humility, developing our own account, offering two reasons for our account, and meeting two objections and solving one puzzle
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61Wisdom Through Adversity: The Potential Role of HumilityJournal of Value Inquiry 53 (3): 475-477. 2019.Adversity provides a chance to reckon with, and properly attend to, our limitations. Appreciating one’s limitations is crucial for humility; and developing humility enhances wisdom.
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45Deep in Thought: A Practical Guide to Teaching for Intellectual VirtuesHarvard Education Press. 2021.__Deep in Thought_ provides an introduction to intellectual virtues—the personal qualities and character strengths of good thinkers and learners—and outlines a pragmatic approach for teachers to reinforce them in the classroom._ With a combination of theoretical expertise and practical experience, philosopher Jason Baehr endorses intellectual virtues as a rich, meaningful way to think about and understand the purpose of education. He makes a persuasive case for prioritizing intellectual virtues …Read more
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9Book Review: Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies (review)Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care 3 (1): 109-111. 2010.
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1958Finding middle ground between intellectual arrogance and intellectual servility: Development and assessment of the limitations-owning intellectual humility scalePersonality and Individual Differences 124 184-193. 2018.Recent scholarship in intellectual humility (IH) has attempted to provide deeper understanding of the virtue as personality trait and its impact on an individual's thoughts, beliefs, and actions. A limitations-owning perspective of IH focuses on a proper recognition of the impact of intellectual limitations and a motivation to overcome them, placing it as the mean between intellectual arrogance and intellectual servility. We developed the Limitations-Owning Intellectual Humility Scale to assess …Read more
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214Intellectual Humility in Interdisciplinary Projects: Analysis and MeasurementJournal of Psychology and Christianity 38 (3): 160-163. 2019.
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1041The Puzzle of Humility and DisparityIn Mark Alfano, Michael Patrick Lynch & Alessandra Tanesini (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Humility, Routledge. pp. 72-83. 2021.Suppose that you are engaging with someone who is your oppressor, or someone who espouses a heinous view like Nazism or a ridiculous view like flat-earthism. In contexts like these, there is a disparity between you and your interlocutor, a dramatic normative difference across which you are in the right and they are in the wrong. As theorists of humility, we find these contexts puzzling. Humility seems like the *last* thing oppressed people need and the *last* thing we need in dealing with tho…Read more
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87On the reliability of moral and intellectual virtuesMetaphilosophy 38 (4): 456-470. 2007.I examine here whether reliability is a defining feature of (moral or intellectual) virtues. I argue (1) that reliability is not a defining feature of a virtue where virtues are conceived (as they often are) as “personal excellences,” but (2) that there is another (also intuitive and familiar) conception of a virtue according to which reliability is a defining feature. I also argue (3) that even on the former conception, a certain rational belief pertaining to reliability is essential and (4) th…Read more
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299The structure of open-mindednessCanadian Journal of Philosophy 41 (2): 191-213. 2011.Open-mindedness enjoys widespread recognition as an intellectual virtue. This is evident, among other ways, in its appearance on nearly every list of intellectual virtues in the virtue epistemology literature.1 Despite its popularity, however, it is far from clear what exactly open-mindedness amounts to: that is, what sort of intellectual orientation or activity is essential to it. In fact, there are ways of thinking about open-mindedness that cast serious doubt on its status as an intellectual …Read more
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318Character in EpistemologyPhilosophical Studies 128 (3): 479-514. 2006.This paper examines the claim made by certain virtue epistemologists that intellectual character virtues like fair-mindedness, open-mindedness and intellectual courage merit an important and fundamental role in epistemology. I begin by considering whether these traits merit an important role in the analysis of knowledge. I argue that they do not and that in fact they are unlikely to be of much relevance to any of the traditional problems in epistemology. This presents a serious challenge for vir…Read more
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75Virtue epistemologyInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2004.Virtue Epistemology Virtue epistemology is a collection of recent approaches to epistemology that give epistemic or intellectual virtue concepts an important and fundamental role. Virtue epistemologists can be divided into two groups, each accepting a different conception of what an intellectual virtue is. Virtue reliabilists conceive of intellectual virtues as stable, reliable and truth-conducive cognitive … Continue reading Virtue Epistemology →
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61Responsibilist virtues and the “charmed inner circle” of traditional epistemologyPhilosophical Studies 174 (10): 2557-2569. 2017.In Judgment and Agency, Ernest Sosa takes “reliabilist” virtue epistemology deep into “responsibilist” territory, arguing that “a true epistemology” will assign “responsibilist-cum-reliabilist intellectual virtue the main role in addressing concerns at the center of the tradition.” However, Sosa stops short of granting this status to familiar responsibilist virtues like open-mindedness, intellectual courage, and intellectual humility. He cites three reasons for doing so: responsibilist virtues i…Read more
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240Evidentialism, vice, and virtuePhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 78 (3): 545-567. 2009.Evidentialists maintain that epistemic justification is strictly a function of the evidence one has at the moment of belief. I argue here, on the basis of two kinds of cases, that the possession of good evidence is an insuflicient basis for justification. I go on to propose a modification of evidentialism according to which justification sometimes requires intellectually virtuous agency. The discussion thereby underscores an important point of contact between evidentialism and the more recent en…Read more
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33The Structure of Open-MindednessCanadian Journal of Philosophy 41 (2): 191-213. 2011.Open-mindedness enjoys widespread recognition as an intellectual virtue. This is evident, among other ways, in its appearance on nearly every list of intellectual virtues in the virtue epistemology literature. Despite its popularity, however, it is far from clear what exactly openmindedness amounts to: that is, what sort of intellectual orientation or activity is essential to it. In fact, there are ways of thinking about open-mindedness that cast serious doubt on its status as an intellectual vi…Read more
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129Credit Theories and the Value of KnowledgePhilosophical Quarterly 62 (246): 1-22. 2012.One alleged advantage of credit theories of knowledge is that they are capable of explaining why knowledge is essentially more valuable than mere true belief. I argue that credit theories in fact provide grounds for denying this claim and therefore are incapable of overcoming the ‘value problem’ in epistemology. Much of the discussion revolves around the question of whether true belief is always epistemically valuable. I also consider to what extent, if any, my main argument should worry credit …Read more
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360Character, reliability and virtue epistemologyPhilosophical Quarterly 56 (223). 2006.Standard characterizations of virtue epistemology divide the field into two camps: virtue reliabilism and virtue responsibilism. Virtue reliabilists think of intellectual virtues as reliable cognitive faculties or abilities, while virtue responsibilists conceive of them as good intellectual character traits. I argue that responsibilist character virtues sometimes satisfy the conditions of a reliabilist conception of intellectual virtue, and that consequently virtue reliabilists, and reliabilists…Read more
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1The Epistemological Role of the Intellectual VirtuesDissertation, University of Washington. 2002.My concern is with the epistemological role of traits like inquisitiveness, attentiveness, fair-mindedness, open-mindedness, intellectual carefulness, thoroughness, tenacity, and caution. I argue for two main claims, one negative and the other positive. ;Negatively, I argue that considerations of intellectual virtue do not have an important role to play in connection with any of the more traditional epistemological problems. I show that if considerations of intellectual virtue were to play such …Read more
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152Four Varieties of Character-Based Virtue EpistemologySouthern Journal of Philosophy 46 (4): 469-502. 2008.The terrain of character-based or “responsibilist” virtue epistemology has evolved dramatically over the last decade -- so much so that it is far from clear what, if anything, unifies the various views put forth in this area. In an attempt to bring some clarity to the overall thrust and structure of this movement, I develop a fourfold classification of character-based virtue epistemologies. I also offer a qualified assessmentof each approach, defending a certain account of the probable future of…Read more
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Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Areas of Interest
Virtue Ethics |